rian was building from the Tyne estuary to the Solway Firth.

As he reflected he glanced occasionally up at the tall figure of a
youthful Briton beside him--a noble of the tribe of the Brigantes--whom
the soldiers had nicknamed 'Rufus' on account of his auburn hair.

These two had become such close friends that the prefect of the camp had
likened them to Nisus and Euryalus, for they were inseparable. '_His
amor unus erat pariterque in bella ruebant._'

'Rufus' was employed as an 'explorator'--a pioneer, or scout, along the
wall, as he had an exact knowledge of the country, but he was at the
moment engaged upon a piece of sculpture--having a natural gift for the
chisel--and was putting a final touch to the figure of a lion standing
above a dead stag.

He stooped and drew a stopper of clay from the lion's mouth, and at once
a stream of water broke through and flashed into the trough.

'_Euge! Macte virtute, puer!_' cried Castus in delight; ''tis a superb
fountain head! And the carving is wondrous, for though thou hast seen
the stag thou hast not the lion; yet there he stands full of pride and
challenge on his kill, just as I have seen him in the Circus Maximus in
Rome.

'By the way,' he continued, 'I have ordered Scaevola, the camp's head
mason, to cut that altar which we promised to set up to Sylvanus when we
brought down the famous Grindon stag--that great hart o' grease--which
every officer in Corstopitum had hunted in vain.'

As he spoke he rose up and laid his tablet and style aside.

'How jealous they all were,' he continued. 'How the Prefect doubted its
weight and sneered at its tynes and the bay and tray!'

'I think,' replied his friend with a laugh, 'that he would willingly
himself have set up an altar to every god from Jupiter Optimus Maximus
to our local Mogon, had he had the luck to grass him.'

'The Forum would have been lined with them,' assented his friend,
smiling also. 'Well, this is the inscription I gave to Scaevola to cut
on the one altar we promised--he was cheap at one.

'Silvano invicto sacrum
L. Sentius Castus signifer Leg VI.
Et Tetricus explorator murus
Ob cervum eximiae formae captum
Quem multi antecessores eorum
Praedari non potuerunt.

'That is work for a mason, not for an artist like yourself, who have
embellished Caesar's town in Ultima Thule with a masterpiece.

'Mark this day with white chalk, for thou shalt behold Caesar himself,
since he hath just